The world faces gridlock on a global scale, according to Ford chairman, Bill Ford.

(Liu Jin/AFP Photo)

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 12:09 PM

Endless traffic jams and gridlock on a global scale could be the norm if the auto industry doesn’t embrace modern in-car communications, warned Ford chairman Bill Ford.

Giving a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February 27 - March 1), Ford, the great-grandson of pioneer Henry Ford, warned that as the number of people and vehicles continue to grow, the world could grind to a halt.

Four billion cars could be on the roads by the middle of the century (up from one billion today), he said, predicting a "a never-ending traffic jam that wastes time, energy and resources and even compromises the flow of commerce and healthcare."

Warning that no company or industry would be able to tackle the problem alone, he called for the automotive and telecommunications industries to work together to develop 'intelligent' cars which can talk to each other and infrastructure to relieve some of the pressure.

"Now is the time for us all to be looking at vehicles on the road the same way we look at smartphones, laptops and tablets; as pieces of a much bigger, richer network," he said.

With traffic jams in Sao Paulo regularly exceeding 150 km already and one snarl up in China lasting for 11 days in 2010, there is a growing awareness that the 'perfect storm' of urbanization in the developing world, population growth and vehicle growth is about to cause serious problems.

Although an unusually frank admission in a somewhat unique setting, Ford's exhortations won't come as a surprise to many in the automotive industry, who are already concerned about similar issues -- not least because car sales are likely to slide if nobody can drive them.

General Motors, already competing with Ford on telematics, has also proposed solutions to the gridlock problem, developing concepts for use in 'megacities' which can communicate with other vehicles to cut jams and reduce collisions.

The firm has also participated in a German study which found that just five cars in a thousand could cut congestion, helping to give authorities an indication of how best to smooth traffic flow in cities.

German automaker Audi is also working on the problem, and is believed to be preparing to present its ideas for the first time at a technology show when it exhibits at CeBIT in Hannover, next week (March 6-10).